Project Detail

Solar Energy and Sustainable Development for Rural Areas in Laos

The objective of the project is to help target population to built and use small solar technologies such as solar oven and dyer for cooking food, boiling water, drying of food crop and other forestry products which would directly contribute in reducing rate of deforestation by limiting the gathering and cutting pf trees for firewood The project was focusing towards providing climate change adaptation activities due to the increasing scarcity of wood as fuel brought about by unpredictable weather patterns. In Lao PDR it was recorded that events of prolong drought and extended rainy season have resulted to flood and landslide which significantly affects the livelihood of the communities, and to some extent suitable areas for collection of forest products such firewood has been condensed into small patches due to diminishing forest landscape. In addition to its adaptation focus, target population has been encouraged promote hygienic means of food intake and selling of more value added agricultural and forestry products to provide evermore resilience of the community to climate change.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Lao Organic Products Promotion Association

Country:

Lao

Area Of Work:

Community Based Adaptation

Operational Phase:

OP4 - Y3 (Jul 09 - Jun 10)

Grant Amount:

US$ 45,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 4,600.00

Project Number:

LAO/MAP-CBA/2010-CBA/8

Start Date:

3/2011

End Date:

3/2012

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Notable Community Participation

A number of village elders from the 1 village and representatives of mass organisations who work in the community initially formulated the project. These members of the community were concerned with the increasing vulnerability of the community to climate variability and the pressure this is placing on the natural environments in the vicinity of the village. Subsequent to the acceptance of the Project Concept Note by SGP/MAP-CBA for funding, the project proponents received a grant to formulate the full project proposal. A series of village meeting have been held to discuss the project with other three neighboring villages and to carry out the initial VRAs. A project management structure has been formulated encompassing prominent members from one of the ten village communities and District government officials.

Capacity - Building Component

At village and district level, the proposed project management structure draws together prominent member from each village and co-operating organization. Each village will be represented on the Project Executive Committee. Participants on each of the training courses proposed will include participants from each of the ten villages. It will be a condition of attending the training that the participants disseminate what they have learned to other members of their village. The project relies on the participation of all the villagers to cooperate with the formulation and implementation of solar energy for household.

Gender Focus

Gathering of firewood is mainly carried out by women in the villages, by providing solar technologies it is expected that burden of gathering of firewood from distant forest will be lessen due to relatively new habit of cooking.

Policy Impact

It is anticipated that district advisors from district energy and mining office (DEMO) will have the capacity to provide technical assistance for most of the Outputs proposed by the project. However, provision has been made in the development of the budget to employ technical assistance from outside of the district should the need arise.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

Several meetings were held with targeted populations and cooperation partners in order to conduct project inception and conduct the awareness raising to provide a good baseline for the project as all of the community to have a good understanding of climate change issues. The VRA, an important step for proposal development was conducted through application of planning grant scheme. This approach leads LOPPA access quantitative indicators that are going to use to measure project results. Through the technical support, technical staff will develop monitoring tool ?Monitoring Table? with full set of baseline information on the firewood use then to check up if there is any changing after introduction of solar ovens and solar dryers and its impact on deforestation and climate change mitigation.

Replication of project activities

The project is attempting to replicate project activities to neighboring villages. A call for meeting involving community representatives of other villagers was carried out to commence potential replication of solar oven and dyers activities.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

The project proponent, LOPPA, will have overall responsibility project management including financial management in line with the project proposal and budget. In addition LOPPA will be responsible for ensuring that regular monitoring and reporting to SGP Lao PDR is carried out as required. The District Administration Office and Energy and Mining Office representatives will be responsible for ensuring full cooperation and participation from all of the villages and from each strand of village society.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

The success of the project depends on community participation in the development and implementation of environmental protection and climate adaptation strategies. A number of safeguards have been included in the development of the project to minimize this risk; - The project proponents and implementing partners are imbedded in the community and thus have direct access to each of the village communities. - The management structure of the project includes members from each village on the Executive Committee - Awareness raising has been included as an initial project activity to reinforce the need for the project and get people involved. Networks will be built with other similar projects to inspire participation in the project.

Project sustainability

The sustainability of the project lies within the participation of stakeholders. A common consensus of community members to tackle climate change shows long term sustainability of the project. Carbon footprint wise, the project is addressing CO2 emissions at community level.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

This project will have four expected results. The first will be the building and the use of 150 solar ovens and solar dryer by target population. The second expected result will be the decreasing of the quantities of firewood or charcoal that are use for cooking and the impact on deforestation and the mitigation of climate change. The impact on deforestation will be estimate by comparing the quantities of firewood use for cooking before the introduction of the solar technology with the quantities of firewood use after. The impact on climate change mitigation will be estimate by comparing the quantities of carbon dioxide that were release before and after the introduction of the solar technology. The third expected result will be the knowing of the number of units of solar ovens and solar dryers that can be disseminate in the neighboring rural communities of the target village and its impact on deforestation and climate change mitigation. The fourth expected result would be the knowing of the impact of the dissemination of the new technology on income generation and poverty reduction in the target villages. Solar technologies will be design and assembly from local technology and local raw materials and the training will allow the people involved in training to build and repair solar equipment by themselves.

Project Results

Project commences its activities by providing solar oven to 10 target villages in Samouy. There are more than 100 people shows interest in the project including neighboring villages. One the challenge of the project is the access road leading to the target villages, condition of the road is considered very poor. Overall, there are 100 families of 10 villages and total of 540 people benefited in the project. The project is intended to be replicated in the neighboring villages as interest from other group in solar technologies is becoming apparently. Several workshops and meetings have been conducted with the community members to provide awareness towards climate change and assessment of the project team on the understand of community to climate change is very positive. The project have successfully organized villagers to use renewable energy in their everyday life and reduce collection of firewood in the forest. Lesson learned and knowledge gained in the project was shared among members of the project. An operations manual for using solar stove was distributed to the target villages and families. Indicators of the project includes reduce use of wood for cooking, an estimated 1620 metric cubic per year which is equivalent to 8433 kilowatt per hour per year is being save by using project solar energy innovation. As a result, there is a significant decrease in carbon emission by wood burning at community level and it is suggested that an estimated 4 tons of firewood per year is used by a family in rural areas. Thus, it is important to note that influence of the project through reduction of deforestation is tantamount. Furthermore, recorded positive social impacts of the activities through provisioning of solar technology e.g. women are task to collect firewood for cooking has been greatly reduce, this allow them to attend to other task such as other household chores.

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Indicators

Biophysical

VRA1: Vulnerability to present climate change hazards 10

Biophysical

VRA2: Efficacy of coping mechanisms to current climate risks 10

Biophysical

VRA3: Vulnerability to future, anticipated climate hazards 10

Biophysical

VRA4: Efficacy of coping mechanisms in face of projected climate change 10

Biophysical

VRA5: Magnitude of barriers to adaptation 10

Biophysical

VRA6: Sustainability of project intervention 10

Biophysical

VRA7: Development of adaptive capacity beyond the scope of the project intervention 10

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